Cinema Can Do Dostoevsky: Norte, the End of History

This film by Filipino director Lav Diaz, to whom Arsenal dedicated a retrospective in 2008, is based on Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”. In Manila, a circle of law students meet to have endless political debates. Their most radical representative, Fabian, a former student, murders a moneylender in the hope of triggering a social revolution. Family father Joaquin is arrested in his place and sentenced to lifelong imprisonment. While Fabian manages to get him released later on, Fabian tears himself to pieces in endless self-reproach nonetheless. Lav Diaz tells the story in lengthy shots, images of a characteristically expressive power and a feeling of extended temporality. Documentary footage of everyday life in the Philippines merges with poetic landscape images and meditative scenes. The oeuvre of Lav Diaz, whose extremely long films challenge audiences and critics alike due to their unusual narrative form, can be seen as a one of the most important discoveries in Asian cinema. (ug/eg)